The World Food Program says that half the population of Ethiopia’s Tigray region need food aid after nearly two years of civil war. Aid agencies say Ethiopia’s federal authorities are limiting aid to the region, which the head of the World Health Organization calls the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. 

On Friday, the U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP) said nearly half of Tigray’s estimated seven million people are in need of food aid. It also said that a fuel embargo on the region is hampering distribution of the aid that gets in.

The news comes after Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO) and an ethnic Tigrayan, made international headlines asserting that the humanitarian crisis taking place in the region is the worst in the world.  

The crisis in Tigray, he said, is worse than Ukraine “without any exaggeration,” and suggested the neglect may have to do with the color of Tigrayan people’s skin.

Aside from claims of neglect internationally, the Ethiopian government has been accused of imposing a humanitarian blockade on Tigray, where pro-government forces have been fighting the rebel Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, the TPLF, since November of 2020. 

William Davison is an analyst for The International Crisis Group, a research organization based in Belgium.  

“The federal government clearly needs to take action urgently to restore the services and if there needs to be discussions with the authorities in Tigray about the logistics and the legalities of how that’s done, then those talks should be held, but this dispute should in no way prevent the convening of peace talks to try and reach a permanent cease-fire,” said Davison.

At a news conference Thursday, Billene Seyoum, an Ethiopian federal government representative, said some aid is reaching the Tigray region’s capital.

“Thus far, for the Tigray region, above 29,000 or close to 30,000 metric tons of food, 31,940 metric tons of nonfood items, 300,000,000 Birr [Ethiopian currency], above 66,000 liters of fuel, 23.63 metric tons of medicine, 2,096 metric tons of fertilizer have reached Mekelle, for distribution to beneficiaries throughout the region,” said Seyoum.

Humanitarian organizations say this aid is not enough to prevent famine-like conditions in some parts of the region. 

The national government has said it is ready for unconditional peace talks with the TPLF, which could lead to restoration of aid and services. 

However, a TPLF representative, Fesseha Asghedom Tessema, says the government is using the prospect of restored aid to force an end to hostilities.  

He told VOA, “The Abiy government in Addis, its latest position, as you know, is that direct negotiations has to come first. That is, we have to have a direct negotiation and then agree on a cease-fire. Of course, if that materializes, if there is a positive outcome, they will resume the services. That is as conditional as you can get.” 

On Thursday, the TPLF reported that the government attacked its troops in Tigray, in violation of a humanitarian cease-fire which has been in place since March. The government denied the accusation. 
…

Yeyerisa Abimbola has dedicated most of her 58 years on Earth to the Osun, a waterway in deeply religious Nigeria named for the river goddess of fertility. As the deity’s chief priestess, she leads other women known as servants of Osun in daily worship and sacrificial offerings along the riverbank.

But with each passing day, she worries more and more about the river. Once sparkling and clear and home to a variety of fish, today it runs mucky and brown.

“The problem we face now are those that mine by the river,” Abimbola said. “As you can see, the water has changed color.”

The river, which flows through the dense forest of the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove — designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005 — is revered for its cultural and religious significance among the Yoruba-speaking people predominant in southwestern Nigeria, where Osun is widely worshipped.

But it’s under constant threat from pollution from waste disposal and other human activity — especially the dozens of illegal gold miners across Osun state whose runoff is filling the sacred river with toxic metals. Amid lax enforcement of environmental laws in the region, there are also some who use the river as a dumping ground, further contributing to its contamination.

The servants of Osun, made up of women mostly between the ages of 30 and 60, live in a line of one-room apartments along the side of the Osogbo palace, the royal house of the the Osogbo monarch about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) north of the grove and river.

They leave behind everything from their secular lives, including marriages, to serve both the goddess and the king. They have little interaction with outsiders, allowing them to devote themselves fully to the goddess, whom they worship daily at a shrine tucked deep inside the grove.

Often seen in flowing white gowns symbolizing the purity the river represents, the women carry out various tasks for the goddess from dawn to dusk, from overseeing sacrificial offerings, mostly live animals and drinks, to carrying out cultural activities in the Osun’s waters. Some say the goddess heals them of afflictions when they drink or bathe in the river, and others say she can provide wealth or fertility.

One servant of Osun, who goes by the name Oluwatosin, said the river brought her a child when she was having difficulties with childbirth. Now the mother of two children, she intends to remain forever devoted to the river and the goddess.

“It is my belief, and Osun answers my prayers,” Oluwatosin said.

The river also serves as an important “pilgrimage point” for Yoruba people in Nigeria, said Ayo Adams, a Yoruba scholar — especially during the Osun-Osogbo festival, a colorful annual celebration that draws thousands of Osun worshippers and tourists “to celebrate the essence of the Yoruba race.” Some attendees say it offers the chance for a personal encounter with the goddess.

But this year, as the two-week August festival neared, palace authorities announced they had been forced to take the unusual step of telling people to stop drinking the water.

“We have written to the state government, the museum on the activities of the illegal miners and for them to take actions to stop them,” said Osunyemi Ifarinu Ifabode, the Osun chief priest.

Osun state is home to some of Nigeria’s largest gold deposits, and miners in search of gold and other minerals — many of them operating illegally — are scattered across swampy areas in remote villages where there is scant law enforcement presence. While community leaders in Osogbo have been able to keep miners out of the immediate area, they’re essentially free to operate with impunity upstream and to the north.

The miners take water from the river to use in exploration and exploitation, and the runoff flows back into it and other waterways, polluting the drinking water sources of thousands of people.

“It is more or less like 50% of the water bodies in Osun state, so the major water bodies here have been polluted,” said Anthony Adejuwon, head Urban Alert, a nonprofit leading advocacy efforts to protect the Osun River.

Urban Alert conducted a series of tests on the Osun in 2021 and found it to be “heavily contaminated.” The report, which was shared with The Associated Press, found lead and mercury levels in the water at the grove that were, respectively, 1,000% and 2,000% above what’s permissible under the Nigerian Industrial Standard. Urban Alert attributes it to many years of mining activity, some of it within 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the river.

Despite the drinking ban issued by the palace, during a recent visit AP witnessed residents trooping to the river daily to fill up gallon containers for domestic use.

Dr. Emmanuel Folami, a physician based in Osogbo, the state capital, said drinking the toxic water or otherwise using it for purposes that risk human exposure is a “big health concern” that could cause lead poisoning.

In March, the Osun state government announced the arrest of “several individuals for illicit mining, seizures and site closures,” and promised it was studying the level of pollution of the river and ways to address it.

But activists question the sincerity and commitment behind such efforts: “If we cannot see the state government taking action within its own jurisdiction as a (mining) license holder, what are we going to say about the other people?” said Adejuwon of Urban Alert, which is running a social media campaign with the hashtag #SaveOsunRiver.

Abimbola, a servant of Osun since she was just 17 years old, said the goddess is tolerant and giving. She thanks Osun for her blessings — a home, children, good health.

“Every good thing that God does for people, Osun does the same,” she said.

Yet she and others warn that even Osun has her limits.

There may be problems if the river remains contaminated and Osun “gets angry or is not properly appeased,” said Abiodun Fasoyin, a village chief in Esa-Odo, where much of the mining takes place, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Osogbo.

“The riverbank will overflow and sweep people away when it is angry,” Abimbola said. “Don’t do whatever she doesn’t want.”
…

At least eight people have been killed in an attack on a hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital.

Witnesses told VOA’s Somali Service that they heard two or three blasts near the Hayat Hotel at the KM4 junction Friday evening.

A police officer told Reuters news service that one car bomb hit near the hotel, and another hit the hotel’s gate.

Gunfire could still be heard early Saturday as police tried to flush the attackers out of the hotel, The Associated Press reported.

Several people were wounded in the incident.

Islamist militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the blasts. A statement on the group’s website said, “Our fighters seized the hotel and are fighting now inside. We are targeting government officials who are in the hotel.”

The group, which has been waging an insurgency in Somalia for about 15 years, often targets cafes and hotels like the Hayat in Mogadishu that are patronized by political and security officials.

Some information in this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press. 
…

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has formally opened resettlement houses for people internally displaced by the 13-year conflict with Islamist militants in the country’s northeast.

Buhari’s visit Thursday to Borno state, the epicenter of Nigeria’s Islamist insurgency, was part of activities to commemorate the U.N.-declared World Humanitarian Day.

Buhari commissioned 500 units of newly built resettlement homes in a local Molai village. The president also donated food items, including rice, beans and cooking oil, to thousands of internally displaced people.

Nigerian authorities also announced a cash transfer for over 5,000 beneficiaries, most of them women and people living with disabilities.

Since last year, authorities have intensified efforts to close IDP camps in the state and settle residents in their home villages and towns.

Local media report more than 6,000 housing units have so far been completed and allocated to beneficiaries.

However, aid groups have been raising concerns about the safety of the IDPs. Abba Ali Yarima, co-founder of the nonprofit Green Panthers foundation that focuses on ameliorating the impact of climate change, spoke to VOA via phone from Maiduguri.

“People that were relocated are still complaining about access to basic services such as water and health care,” Yarima said. “Then we’re still having a lot of security issues, but because the northwest is also having a bit of security concern now, it has overshadowed the one in the northeast. There are shocking stories coming from the fields that we don’t seem to talk about.”

Buhari praised Nigerian troops and said their efforts have made significant progress toward dislodging the terrorists.

Security analyst Senator Iroegbu agreed but said authorities must remain vigilant and must also introduce community policing in areas where the IDPs are being resettled.

“There’s a relative progress and stability in the northeast in the counterinsurgency operation, [but the] military can’t effectively do a policing job,” Iroegbu said. “If there’s a territory that has been liberated, you cannot completely say that it is safe for civilians to relocate. That’s where you have other security agencies come into play, so I don’t know if the federal government is factoring it.”

The United Nations estimates more than 37,000 people have been killed and about 2.8 million people displaced by the insurgency, which began 13 years ago.

The war has spread to other parts of the country and neighboring Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Yarima said that although attacks persist in the northeast, focus on the humanitarian impact there has been declining and shifting to the northwest, where armed gangs have been active.

“There are attacks in the northeast as much as there are attacks in the northwest, [but] the attention of the media is in the northwest,” Yarima said. “This has also exposed a lot of interventions that are supposed to be in the northeast going to the northwest, which is not a bad thing but … .”

In April, a joint military force from Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon killed more than 100 members of Islamic State West Africa Province, including 10 commanders.

But critics say until ISWAP and Boko Haram can no longer carry out attacks, returning home for many displaced people will remain a big risk.
…

Supporters of free speech in Nigeria are expressing concern after a federal court ruled this week that a singer appealing his death sentence for blasphemy must have his case retried in a Shariah court.

Yahaya Aminu Sharif’s lawyer argued his case should be tried in a secular court and challenged the legality of Nigeria’s Islamic courts, which critics say threaten free speech.

But in its decision delivered Wednesday on Zoom, the Kano state appeals court ruled 2-1 that Islamic law does not violate the national charter and that Islamic courts have jurisdiction to try blasphemy cases.

The ruling dismissed a challenge filed by Sharif’s lawyer, Kola Alapinni, questioning the legality of the death sentence. One of the judges, Abubakar Muazu Lamido, said the challenge was not backed by law, and that it was “more out of sentiment.”

An Islamic court in Kano sentenced Sharif to death in August 2020 for allegedly circulating a song that blasphemed the Muslim Prophet Mohammed on social media.

In November, the Kano High Court overruled the sentence and ordered a retrial at the Shariah court, stating that Sharif did not have any legal representation during his trial.

Different appraisals

Activists are raising concerns about the appeals court ruling. Abuja-based human rights lawyer Martin Obono called it a threat to free speech. But Kano state Attorney General and Justice Commissioner Musa Abdullahi Lawan praised the judgment, calling it a victory for Kano citizens.

Sharif’s lawyer has yet to respond to the court’s decision, but he has been opposing Shariah, saying it contravenes the Nigerian Constitution. Islamic scholar Fuad Adeyemi, who serves as executive director of the Al-habibiyyah Islamic society, rejects that assertion.

Shariah, he said, is sometimes “misapplied by people who are not professionals in the handling of it. It’s strictly meant for Muslims to regulate the lives of the Muslims. It doesn’t concern any non-Muslim.”

Shariah is more dominant across the 12 northern Nigerian states, with a strong base in Kano.

Critics say they worry the ruling could encourage overzealous believers to take mob actions against alleged blasphemers.

In May, a female college student was stoned to death and burned by an angry mob in northwest Sokoto state over accusations of blasphemy. Three weeks after that, a member of a vigilante group in Abuja was also killed over blasphemy allegations.

Abuja lawyer Kayode Ajulo compared the cases.

“I know as a lawyer that Shariah law is part of the body of laws in Nigeria,” Ajulo said. “The killing of that innocent girl in Sokoto is a clear criminal case of lynching, murder. It is different from [Shariah] because the issue of blasphemy is still subjected to court or tribunal interpretation, and you can see what the high court has done to say there must be a retrial.”

Blasphemy is a sensitive topic in Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people with a nearly equal distribution of Christians and Muslims.

The offense is punishable by a jail sentence under the country’s secular law. But in the far north, the punishment is stricter, including a possible death sentence.
…

Ghana has raised its benchmark interest rate to a record-high 22% as the country struggles to check soaring prices caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ghana is also trying to boost its currency, the cedi, which saw the second-worst drop in value globally after Sri Lanka’s rupee. The high cost of living sparked street protests in July and talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bail out.

The cost of food and services has more than doubled in Ghana as inflation hit 31.7% annually in July, its highest since late 2003. Consumers and businesspeople say they are being pushed out of business as the local currency continues to lose its value against the U.S. dollar.

Naa Koshie, a 45-year-old mother of five who runs a cold store business in the capital, Accra, told VOA she is losing money as prices of goods keep soaring.

The people had a lot of hopes in this government, she said, but it’s embarrassing how things keep getting worse daily.

Addressing the Methodist Church of Ghana on Thursday, President Nana Akufo-Addo said his government is not sleeping on the job.

“The ravages of the pandemic, worsened by the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have led to spiraling freight charges, rising fuel costs, high food prices, steep inflationary spikes and widespread business failures. I am fully aware that these are very difficult times for us in Ghana, just as they are for most people in the world. However, the Akufo-Addo government has not thrown its hands up in despair at this pernicious development.”

The president says he is optimistic the economy will bounce back and will bring relief to Ghanaians.

“We are determined to bring relief to the Ghanaian people. Other steps will be taken, in particular, to deal with the unacceptable depreciation of the cedi. Reining in inflation, by bringing down food prices, is a major preoccupation of the government, and this season’s emerging, successful harvest will assist us achieve this objective, together with other policies.”

Courage Kingsley Martey, the senior economist with Databank Research, told VOA the measures taken by the central bank at its emergency meeting Wednesday to address the free fall of the cedi are appropriate.

“The central bank’s target is to bring inflation down and what we all want as citizens is to have low and stable inflation,” Martey said. “In doing so, there are going to be short-term consequences or tradeoffs. This means individuals who would love to have access to cheaper funds or capital may not be able to do that, but that would have to be the cost we have to bear in the short term.”

Godfred Bokpin, a professor of finance at the University of Ghana, urged Akufo-Addo to reduce the size of his government as a further cut on spending.

“Time is not on our side. The government needs to reduce the size of government drastically and also as a signal and be able to have greater control over expenditure from that side,” Bokpin said.

Time is running out for the government as Ghanaians continue to wait with bated breath, hoping for a major economic turnaround ahead of a hike in utility prices taking effect on September 1.
…

The World Health Organization says clinical evidence shows two monoclonal antibody treatments are effective at saving the lives of many people stricken with the deadly Ebola virus.

The action follows a systematic review and analysis of randomized clinical trials of therapeutics for the disease.

WHO Team Lead for Clinical Care Janet Diaz says the evidence underpinning the recommendations comes from two clinical trials. The largest was done in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 and 2019.

She says the trials were conducted during Ebola outbreaks, demonstrating quality control trials can be done even under the most difficult circumstances.

“The evidence synthesis that informs this guideline shows that mAb114 and Regeneron-EB3 reduced mortality. The relative risk reduction was about 60 percent…Between 230 to 400 lives saved per 1,000 patients. Translate that into the number needed to treat, you treat two to four patients, and you save one life.”

Ebola hemorrhagic fever is spread through blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with or has died of the disease. The worst Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa between 2014 and 2016. Of the nearly 29,000 reported cases, more than 11,300 people died.

Diaz calls the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics a very important advancement. However, she notes the drug itself is not the only solution. She says it must be given in a comprehensive, clinical setting along with other treatments.

“That includes early diagnosis so that treatments can be given as soon as possible and also the implementation of appropriate infection prevention and control to stop transmission…and treatment of co-infections and access to nutrition, psycho-social support, and, of course, access to care after discharge.”

Diaz says the two recommended therapeutics have shown clear benefits for people of all ages. She says they can be used on all patients confirmed positive for Ebola virus disease. That, she says, includes older people, pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, and babies born to mothers with confirmed Ebola within the first seven days after birth.
…

The disputed Ethiopian area of Western Tigray is expected to be a sticking point in talks aimed at ending a nearly two-year civil war. Amhara regional leaders say it must be returned to them for talks to move forward. Henry Wilkins reports from Adi Ramets.
…

A spike in tensions between China and the United States over Taiwan has not gone unnoticed in Africa and has prompted responses that underscore the continent’s tilt toward Beijing.

The U.S. announced trade talks with Taiwan on Thursday following a U.S. congressional delegation’s visit earlier this week that came on the heels of a controversial trip to the self-governing island by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Washington’s recent interactions with Taipei have infuriated Beijing, leading to Chinese military drills in the seas around the island.

Most countries in Africa have sided with China.

During Pelosi’s visit, officials from several African countries condemned the U.S. and publicly supported China. The government of Eritrea deplored Pelosi’s visit as a “reckless” continuation of U.S. policies marked by “flaws and follies.”

Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party also attacked the U.S. for “aggressive conduct” following Pelosi’s visit, with spokesman Chris Mutsvangwa saying: “It is cardinal postulate of international diplomacy that there is one China and Taiwan is an integral part of mainland China.”

The foreign minister of the Republic of Congo, meanwhile, expressed firm support for the one-China policy.

Chinese state media were quick to publicize such support from African governments with an article in the China Daily headlined: “Africans see through US ploy in Pelosi visit.”

Another article on CGTN listed all the Africa officials who’d sided with Beijing.

Root of China-Taiwan dispute

The dispute between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan stems from the Chinese civil war in the 1940s when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government lost to Mao Zedong’s Communists on the Chinese mainland and rebased on the island of Taiwan, also called the Republic of China (ROC).

Beijing considers democratically ruled Taiwan a breakaway province — to be retaken with force if necessary.

In 1979, the U.S. cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan and switched its diplomatic recognition to China. Although the U.S. sells weapons to Taiwan, Washington has formal ties with China, not Taiwan, which is why the visit by Pelosi, a high-level U.S. lawmaker, caused a political storm in Beijing.

For most of the 1960s, Taiwan was more influential than China in Africa, but that changed in 1971 when the U.N. General Assembly affirmed China’s place on the body and denied Taiwan a role — with a majority of African states voting with China.

Since President Xi Jinping’s global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative, came to Africa along with Chinese loans and investments, more countries have switched ties to Beijing, with Burkina Faso — the second-to-last supporter of Taiwan on the continent — choosing to sever ties with Taipei in 2018.

“Gradually, recognition of Taipei over the last two decades has eroded away,” Alex Vines, head of the Africa program at think tank Chatham House, told VOA. “There are no signs of African countries switching back to Taiwan. Years ago, there was some flip flopping — no sign of that these days.”

In the latest spat between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, most African nations stand firmly with Beijing, loathe to alienate the world’s second-largest economy and Africa’s largest trade partner.

Somalia, which has its own problems with the breakaway region of Somaliland, was one of the countries that came out strongly on China’s side during Pelosi’s visit.

Outliers supporting Taiwan

The two outliers on the African continent that continue to support Taiwan are the also-unrecognized Somaliland and Eswatini.

The autonomous area of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa is internationally considered part of Somalia despite having unilaterally declared independence in 1991.

It is clear why Somaliland has chosen to side with Taiwan, said Cobus van Staden, senior China-Africa researcher at the South African Institute for International Affairs.

“It’s a direct play into U.S.-China geopolitics … in order to move a separatist cause forward,” he said.

The only recognized state that now supports Taiwan in Africa is Eswatini, an autocratic absolute monarchy formerly known as Swaziland that borders South Africa.

Contacted by VOA about the kingdom’s continued support for Taiwan, Percy Simelane, director of communications for the office of King Mswati III, wrote: “Our diplomatic relations with Taiwan are our sovereign choice and are based on national interest. To us might and wrath can never be larger than our national interest. We refuse to be part of any continental capture.”

Asked to comment on Pelosi’s Taiwan visit specifically, he demurred, saying Eswatini did not wish to be mistaken for “political referees.”

“We elect to play our cards closer to the chest on Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan lest we are mistaken for what we are not,” he said.

Chatham House’s Vines said Eswatini has long benefitted economically from its loyalty to Taipei.

“King Mswati III clearly believes that Taiwan will reward Eswatini more handsomely than Beijing and make few if any demands in return,” he said.

Sanele Sibiya, an economics lecturer at the University of Eswatini, echoed this, saying Taiwan provides a huge amount of aid to the kingdom — including funds for hospitals and educational scholarships —and, unlike Chinese loans, does not ask for anything to be paid back.

Meanwhile, despite Taiwan being a democracy, it is essentially propping up an increasingly unpopular regime. Large pro-democracy protests broke out in Eswatini last year.

“Taiwan has not said much when it comes to the democratization of Eswatini, because they cannot afford to eliminate Eswatini right now,” said Sibiya.

In terms of China punishing Eswatini for its allegiance, Sibiya said there’s a belief in Eswatini that Taiwan would always “pick up the slack.” And anyway, he said, neighboring South Africa is by far the country’s most important trade partner.

However, as a lot of the diplomatic ties hang on the personal relationship between the king and the Taiwanese government, “in a post-king moment Eswatini may well switch,” van Staden told VOA.
…

Exiled Chadian rebel leader Timan Erdimi has returned to the country after a decade in exile in Qatar for talks aiming to pave the way for democratic elections. But boycotts by rebel and opposition groups remain major hurdles.

Erdimi, now 67, returned Thursday, ahead of Saturday’s anticipated landmark talk in N’Djamena, Chad’s capital. Erdimi, who heads the Union of Resistance Forces — widely known as UFR — is accused of leading an armed group that attempted to twice overthrow the Chadian government, in 2008 and 2019.

Comprising at least 40 rebel groups, Erdimi’s UFR signed a peace agreement on August 8 in Doha for talks that would pave the way for elections after 18 months of military rule in Chad.

But two of the biggest rebel groups are boycotting the negotiations forum. Agence France-Presse has reported that the two groups — Front for Change and Concord in Chad — triggered the 2021 offensive in northeastern Chad that killed longtime leader Idriss Deby Itno. The groups claim the forum is politically biased.

The upcoming talks also are expected to bring together 1,400 delegates from the military government, civil society opposition parties, and trade unions.

According to General Mahamat Idriss Deby, president of Chad’s transitional military council, the talks provide a chance for reconciliation in the fractured country.

The junta’s 18-month window for transition to democracy expires in October — a deadline that France, the African Union and other stakeholders have urged the president to uphold.
…

Tigrayan forces have warned of renewed conflict in northern Ethiopia, accusing federal forces of firing on their positions this week, despite a months-long cease-fire. The office of the prime minister dismissed the allegation and said it was aimed at deflecting efforts to engage in peace talks.

After rumors swirled that fighting had broken out between the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the national government, TPLF spokeswoman Fesseha Asghedom Tessema told VOA that bombings took place in several areas.

“The Addis Ababa government has started bombing Tigray forces on different fronts beginning yesterday,” she said. “Therefore, I don’t see any progress towards any peaceful resolution; in fact, it looks like we are back to zero.”

The TPLF made similar comments in a written statement that accused the government of declaring war on the people of Tigray and committing genocide.

Asked to respond to TPLF claims of provocation by national forces, government spokesperson Billene Seyoum denied the accusation at a press briefing.

“This narrative and this rhetoric that keeps coming from the other side is no less than a mechanism to deflect from the desire not to engage in a peaceful manner,” Seyoum said. “But the humanitarian truce that had been enacted by the federal government is still in place.”

The spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

If the claims of an attack are true, it would mark the end of the humanitarian cease-fire established in March between the two sides. The Ethiopian government had also been indicating peace talks with the TPLF might be imminent.

The TPLF has said repeatedly that talks will not go ahead until a humanitarian blockade, which the United Nations said has likely left parts of Tigray in a state of famine, is lifted.

William Davison, an analyst for Belgium-based research organization International Crisis Group, offered his assessment of the situation.

“This report of a skirmish from the Tigrayan side of a skirmish is worrying, it’s the first in a while,” he said. “At the moment the calculations seem to remain in place that the parties are going to pursue a negotiated solution, but certainly the situation remains highly volatile.”

In November 2020, the government launched a military offensive in Tigray in response to attacks by the TPLF.

An estimated 5.1 million people were displaced by the conflict in 2021. Ghent University in Belgium said up to a half million people have died because of the conflict, either in fighting or as a result of the humanitarian crisis it has caused.
…

A U.S. congressional delegation has arrived in Kenya to meet with the new president-elect and the opposition figure likely to file a court challenge to his election loss in the latest electoral crisis for East Africa’s most stable democracy.

The new U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman, said the delegation led by Sen. Chris Coons also will meet with outgoing Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been publicly silent since the largely peaceful Aug. 9 election.

President-elect William Ruto is Kenyatta’s deputy president, but the two fell out years ago, and Kenyatta in the election backed longtime opposition figure Raila Odinga instead.

Odinga has said he is exploring “all constitutional and legal options” to challenge his close election loss. His campaign has a week from Monday’s declaration of Ruto’s win to go to the Supreme Court, which then has 14 days to rule. Odinga has urged his supporters to remain calm in a country with a history of post-election violence.

Kenya’s electoral commission publicly split in chaos just minutes before Monday’s declaration, with commissioners accusing each other of misconduct. The four commissioners who objected to Monday’s declaration were appointed by Kenyatta last year.

The split came as a shock to many Kenyans after an election widely seen as the country’s most transparent ever, with results from the more than 46,000 polling stations posted online for the public to follow along. Public tallies, including one by a local election observer group, added up to a Ruto win with just over 50% of the votes.

The political transition in Kenya will have significant impact on the East Africa region, where Kenyatta had been working with the U.S. to try to mediate in Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict and promoting peace efforts between Rwanda and Congo. Ruto in his public comments this week has focused on domestic matters, not regional ones.

The 55-year-old Ruto appealed to Kenyans by making the election about economic differences and not the ethnic ones that have long marked the country’s politics with sometimes deadly results. He portrayed himself as an outsider from humble beginnings defying the political dynasties of Kenyatta and Odinga, whose fathers were Kenya’s first president and vice president.

The 77-year-old Odinga has pursued the presidency for a quarter-century. He is renowned as a fighter and was detained for years in the 1980s over his push for multiparty democracy. He was also a supporter of Kenya’s groundbreaking 2010 constitution. 
…

At least 26 people died and dozens of others were injured in forest fires that ravaged 14 districts of northern Algeria on Wednesday, the interior minister said. 

Kamel Beldjoud told state television that 24 people died in fires in El Tarf, near the border with Tunisia, and two others died earlier in Setif. 

The civil protection agency in Setif had said that two women, “a 58-year-old mother and her 31-year-old daughter,” were killed in the town. 

In Souk Ahras, farther to the east near Algeria’s border with Tunisia, people were seen fleeing their homes as fires spread before firefighting helicopters were deployed. 

An earlier update said four people in Souk Ahras suffered burns and 41 others had breathing difficulties, the authorities said. Media reports said 350 residents had been evacuated. 

No current figures were given on the number of people injured in the fires in other areas. 

The police have closed several roads as a result of the fires. 

“Thirty-nine fires are underway in 14 wilayas [administrative councils],” the civil protection agency said, noting that El Tarf was the worst hit, with 16 fires in progress. 

Helicopters used buckets to drop water on fires in three wilayas, including Souk Ahras. 

Since the start of August, 106 fires have broken out in Algeria, destroying more than 2,500 hectares of woodland. 

Beldjoud said some of the fires were started by people. 

Wednesday’s toll brought the total number of people killed in wildfires this summer to 30. 

Algeria has 4.1 million hectares (10.1 million acres) of forest. Each year the northern part of the country is affected by forest fires, a problem that has worsened because of climate change. 

Last year, at least 90 people died in forest fires that ravaged northern Algeria, destroying more than 100,000 hectares of woodland.
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The director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Wednesday that Ethiopia’s conflict-ridden province of Tigray is the worst humanitarian and man-made disaster on Earth. 

The WHO chief said more than 6 million people in Tigray have been under siege by Ethiopia and Eritrea for nearly two years. He said they have been sealed off from the outside world with no electricity, no banking services, and only limited fuel supplies. 

Tedros said a trickle of food aid and medicine has been reaching the beleaguered northern province since a truce between the Ethiopian government and Tigray rebel forces was declared in late March. The population is still facing multiple outbreaks of diseases, including malaria, anthrax and cholera, he added. 

“Nowhere in the world would you see this level of cruelty, where … a government punishes 6 million of its people for more than 21 months by denying them basic services,” he said. 

The 57-year-old Tedros is not a neutral observer of the Tigray conflict. He is a native of the region, served as a Tigray regional health official in the early 2000s, and later spent more than a decade in the Ethiopian government, first as minister of health, then as minister of foreign affairs.  

Tedros noted that peace talks for the Tigray conflict are ongoing. However, he said, they are leading nowhere because powerful countries in the developed world are not using their influence to make it happen.  

He said all eyes are focused on the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, to the detriment of the tragedy playing out in Tigray. 

“The humanitarian crisis in Tigray is more than Ukraine without any exaggeration,” Tedros said. “And, I said this many months ago, maybe the reason is the color of the skin of the people in Tigray. … This is the worst disaster on Earth as we speak. I am from Tigray. It is not because I am from Tigray I am saying this. That is the truth.” 

Tedros said he is appealing to the Ethiopian government to resolve the conflict in Tigray peacefully. He said he also is appealing to the Russian government to end the war in Ukraine and choose peace.

He said both the Ethiopian and Russian governments can make peace happen if they choose to do so. 

 
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About 9,000 Tigrayans inhabiting camps for displaced people in the city of Semera, Ethiopia, are being allowed to return to their hometown of Abala, the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced Tuesday. 

A report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in June found that many people in the camps were being held against their will. It said they were rounded up and forcibly removed from Abala in December because of their Tigrayan ethnicity, when fighting broke out between the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front and Afar regional forces. 

In June, VOA visited the two camps in Semera and spoke with people who said they were being held against their will.   

Many were told by authorities they were being held in the camp “for their own security” as TPLF attacked and occupied Abala. 

One of the people still living in the Semera camp, whose name VOA has withheld for his security, told VOA that nine buses returned people to Abala on Tuesday. He said that since the EHRC report, officials from various offices spoke with them about returning to Abala.

A committee from the camp was allowed to visit Abala to observe the situation for returnees, he said, adding, “The people there told us the security is fine and we met with elders in Abala who endorsed our return.”

The TPLF left Abala in late April. 

Asked why it had taken until now for inhabitants of the camps to be cleared for return to Abala, Yibekal Gizaw Agonafir from the EHRC told VOA: “The regional state has been working with traditional and religious leaders, primarily from Abala, to ensure that reconciliation happens, before these IDPs are able to return to their place of residence in Abala. This was deemed necessary by the regional state, because there was a lot of tension that was created because of the conflict, and either real or perceived participation or affiliation of these IDPS with the conflict.” 

Asked the same question, Michel Saad of OCHA said lack of basic services in Abala hindered their return. 

“We have to keep in mind that in many of these places the basic services … have not been functional or are still not functional,” Saad said. “Returning them was not a feasible or viable option until now.” 

According to the U.N., there is no access to electricity, water or health facilities in Abala. 

 
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Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has launched a council to eradicate malaria and named Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, as its leader.  Africa accounts for the vast majority of deaths from the mosquito-borne disease, with nearly a third of victims in Nigeria. But Africa has struggled to eliminate the disease.

The launch of Nigeria’s End Malaria Council, EMC, took place Tuesday at the presidential banquet hall in Abuja.

During the event, Nigerian President Buhari inaugurated the 16-member committee, which will oversee an effort to eliminate malaria in Nigeria within the next eight years.  

He appointed business magnate Aliko Dangote as the chairman of the group. Dangote runs a non-profit that has been mobilizing private sector support for malaria control in Africa.

Buhari said the council will advocate for more funding to sustain anti-malaria projects in the country.

“Our inauguration today will ensure that malaria elimination remains a priority on our agenda with strong political commitment from leaders at all levels,” said Buhari. “The successful implementation of the council’s agenda will result in improvement in the quality of life.”

The World Health Organization says Nigeria alone accounts for about 27% of all malaria cases and 32% of malaria deaths globally.

The idea to set up country-led councils to fight malaria in Africa was birthed by the African Union Assembly in 2018 with the stated aim of eliminating the disease from the continent by 2030.

Lack of funding and lack of innovation have been major factors stalling progress, says Lynda Ozor, WHO malaria program chief, who spoke to VOA Tuesday.

“For me it represents the highest political commitment to end malaria. The political commitment which we saw yesterday translates to recommitment to accelerate actions towards ending the disease,” said Ozor. “Malaria is not just a disease but a socioeconomic problem. We hope that in the very near future we should be gearing towards our elimination goal.”

The mosquito-borne disease is endemic in Africa and mostly affects children under five years old, due to low acquired immunity. 

Wellington Oyibo, a parasitologist at the University of Lagos, says eradicating malaria will require a multi-pronged strategy. He spoke to a Lagos-based Channels television station.

“With the approval of the vaccine last year, every other control measure – vector control, the use of efficacious medicines, the use of diagnostics to confirm fever before treatment, even going further to the reengineering of the environment will be needed.  It’s going to be all tools together,” said Oyibo.

Nigeria is one of more than 20 African countries that have launched country-specific responses to malaria, including Kenya, Zambia, Eswatini, and Uganda.
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Despite a nationwide vaccination campaign that started in May, Malawi is struggling to contain a cholera outbreak that has infected more than 1,073 people and caused 44 deaths. 

The figures from the Malawi Ministry of Health, updated as of Aug. 16, 2022, are triple the numbers recorded when the vaccination campaign was launched three months ago. 

The report also says the outbreak has spread to 10 districts from eight in May. The hardest hit districts include Blantyre with 489 cases, Neno with 128 cases, and Nsanje with 289 cases.  

George Mbotwa, spokesperson for a health office in Nsanje district, which borders Mozambique south of Malawi, said continued incidents of cholera in the district are largely because of movements of people between the two countries. 

“What is worrisome is that we have now continued to record the cases when by now we would have contained the situation,” he said. “It’s because some of these cases we are sharing with Mozambique. So, the cases will be coming from Mozambique and then reporting to health facilities in Nsanje, then being recorded as Nsanje cases.”

Mbotwa said the situation is slowly improving, after officials on the Mozambican side agreed during recent discussions to set up cholera treatment sites on their side of the border.  

“The Mozambican side by then didn’t have cholera treatment sites, and now they have them there, so people are able to report the cases right there, unlike coming with cases to Malawi,” he said. 

Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with bacteria. The disease affects both children and adults, and if untreated, it can kill within hours.  

Penjani Chunda, environmental health officer in Blantyre, said although Blantyre is largely an urban area, cholera cases are on the rise because most people fetch water from unprotected sources like rivers and streams. 

“In most parts of Blantyre, we don’t have portable water sources,” he said. “It might be like an urban setup, but it has no portable water sources, and we have got dry taps in some of the areas and [water] kiosks are not working at all.”  

The spokesperson for the Health Ministry, Adrian Chikumbe, said health authorities are currently distributing chlorine for water treatment, and providing public education on good hygiene.  

Chikumbe also hopes the second phase of the national oral cholera vaccination campaign, which is expected to start soon in the most-hit districts, will help contain the situation.     

 
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A measles outbreak in Zimbabwe has killed at least 157 children, with more than 2,000 infections reported across the country, the government said Tuesday.

Cases have been growing rapidly in the southern African nation since authorities said the first infection was logged earlier this month, with reported deaths almost doubling in less than a week.

“As of 15 August, the cumulative figure across the country has risen to 2,056 cases and 157 deaths,” Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said, briefing journalists after a weekly Cabinet meeting.

Mutsvangwa said the government was going to step up vaccinations and has invoked special legislation allowing it to draw money from the national disaster fund “to deal with the emergency.”

She said the government was to engage with traditional and faith leaders to garner their support with the vaccination campaign, adding most victims were not vaccinated.

The health ministry has previously blamed the outbreak on church sect gatherings.

The measles virus attacks mainly children with the most serious complications including blindness, brain swelling, diarrhea and severe respiratory infections.

Its symptoms are a red rash that appears first on the face and spreads to the rest of the body. Once very common it can now be prevented with a vaccine.

In April, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Africa was facing an explosion of preventable diseases due to delays in vaccinating children, with measles cases jumping 400%.
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The runner-up in Kenya’s just-concluded presidential election has rejected the result, saying the announcement of the winner was illegal. Raila Odinga cited a split in the electoral commission and the chairman’s failure to explain how he came up with the final numbers.

Addressing elected governors, members of parliament and politicians allied to his Azimio Coalition, Raila Odinga on Tuesday rejected the presidential results.

“The figures announced by Chebukati are null and void and must be couched by a court of law,” Odinga said. “In our view there is neither a legally, validly declared winner nor a president-elect. Mr. Chebukati’s announcement purporting to announce a winner is a nullity.”

Odinga said the head of the electoral commission, Wafula Chebukati, did not follow the constitution and the electoral law when declaring the winner.

Chebukati on Monday declared William Ruto as Kenya’s president-elect, saying Ruto won 7.1 million votes, while Odinga got 6.9 million.

The chair’s decision to announce the winner over their objections angered the majority of the commissioners, including his deputy.

The vice chair of the commission Juliana Cherera said Tuesday the tallying process was not transparent.

“The tallying phase at the end, that there was opaqueness things were not being shown to the public,” Cherera said. “You’ve been there even at Bomas and the screens were supposed to show accumulative numbers of the presidential candidates’ votes as the garnered, as we continued to read the results, the same was not displayed to the public. And the same was not given to the commissioners, just like the public was not aware. The same, the commissioners were not aware.”

Cherera said the numbers did not add up.

“This summation gives us a total of 100.01 percent. The 0.01 percent translates to approximately 142,000 votes which will make a significant difference in the final results,” Cherera said. “We, therefore, decline to take ownership of the said results because the aggregation resulted in a total exceeding the percentage of 100 which cast doubt on the accuracy of the source of figures.”

It was not clear if Cherea misspoke, as 0.01 percent would translate to only 1,420 votes.

The election dispute has raised fears Kenya may see violence of the kind that has happened after other elections.  

On Monday, the body of election presiding officers who went missing last week was found in Kajiado County.  

Odinga on Tuesday called for calm and said his team will go through legal means to address their dissatisfaction with the election outcome.  

“I want to commend our supporters for remaining calm and keeping the peace and urge them to continue to do so. Let no one take the law into their own hands,” Odinga said. “We are passing through lawful and constitutional processes to invalidate Mr. Chebukati’s illegal and unconstitutional pronouncement. We are certain that justice will prevail.”

Odinga has until Sunday to lodge his case at the Supreme Court, which could take up to two weeks to give a final verdict.

Last week’s election was the former prime minister’s fifth attempt to win the presidency.
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Political analysts in Kenya say the public is beginning to accept more diversified leadership after last week’s election saw a small but record-high number of women winning office.

Kenya is a male-dominated society and the overwhelming majority of political offices are still held by men.

But in the August 9 elections, a record-high total of 22 women won seats in the National Assembly and the Senate. Women also won seven of the 47 county governor seats, up from three in the 2017 elections.

Political analysts say the results show Kenyans are becoming more comfortable with the idea of female leaders.

“I think Kenya has got to the point where it has accepted that women can lead and the fact that it’s not even a big discussion, it’s not a shock in the country that the country has definitely accepted that a woman can lead,” said Mark Bichache, a Kenyan political analyst.

Vimal Shah is the chairman of “Mkenya Daima,” a group promoting peace and unity, whose name means “Forever Kenyan” in Swahili. He was impressed that nationwide, nearly 2,000 women ran for political office.

“Women have always sought opportunity to show what they can do, especially in leadership, but now it’s coming through, and they have been supported and I think it’s impressive [there were] 1,962 women candidates. That was really brilliant,” says Shah.

In another notable development, voters in Kenya’s Bungoma county elected an albino man, Martin Wanyonyi, to the National Assembly. It’s the first time a person with albinism has won a competitive election to parliament.

Previously, Isaac Mwaura was appointed to a seat, representing special interest groups.

Analyst Bina Maseno says previously, cultural and social barriers would have kept people like Wanyonyi out of office.

“So, to see the candidates with disabilities being elected at the ballot is very impressive and a step in the right direction,” said Maseno.

The August election was the third under a constitution established in 2010. Political analysts believe that continued sensitization of the public will see Kenyans elect more diverse leaders in the future.
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Former Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga has rejected official results that show him losing last week’s presidential election.

In a televised statement Tuesday, Odinga said the results announced by the head of Kenya’s electoral commission are “null and void.”

“In our view, there is neither a legally, validly declared winner nor a president-elect,” Odinga said.

The head of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission said Monday that William Ruto won a first-round victory in the August 9 election, getting just over 50 percent of the vote.

He said Odinga ran a close second with just under 49 percent.

The announcement was enmeshed in controversy even before it was made, as four of the seven members on the electoral commission disowned the result. The vice chair of the commission said the vote counting process was “too opaque.”
…

Kenya’s tightly contested presidential election led to growing tensions between supporters of the two main candidates William Ruto the president-elect and Raila Odinga. Experts say claims of election fraud are likely to see the results challenged in court. 

The losers of last week’s presidential election and any Kenyan citizen have seven days to file their petition at the Supreme Court.

The electoral commission chair announced William Ruto as the winner of last week’s presidential vote. He garnered 50.49% of the vote his main challenger Raila Odinga got 48.85%.

Odinga’s chief returning officer disagreed with the results and claimed their win was stolen.

It’s unclear whether Odinga will challenge the results at the Supreme Court, but the country’s law allows Kenyans to challenge the results and file their own petition.

Omwanza Ombati, an electoral law expert, says those who oppose the win can ask the court for directions and must be aware there is a limited time.

“The orders that are available for grant by the court are scrutiny and recount and also to nullify the return of William Ruto, president-elect. [It] is a very narrow petition in terms of what you can seek,” he said.

In Kenya, the petitioners have seven days to file their case at the Supreme Court, and the respondents have four days to answer those allegations. The court is required to make a ruling in two weeks.

Political commentator Martin Andati says the commission had its own flaws and some of the irregularities witnessed in the process will be laid out.

“The process has been fairly open,” he said. “There have been challenges, attempts to infiltrate the system, there have been claims of numbers being padded, there have been claims in some places you will hear some numbers they were supposed to be 10,000 but declared 1,000. So, those kinds of allegations will definitely come up and arise at the Supreme Court. So, the people who have the power and the mandate to resolve those issues are the Supreme Court.”

In 2017, the Supreme Court nullified the presidential results after a successful petition by Odinga.

There were protests and celebrations after the announcement of the presidential results.

There was also chaos at the electoral commission tallying center when the chief was about to announce the winner of the election. The election split the commission in four, disagreeing with the presidential results called out by the electoral chief.

Ombati says the division of the commission does not have a huge impact in terms of the law but damages the electoral body’s credibility and reputation.

“The presidential returning officer is the chairperson of the commission, and that sole responsibility is not shared among other commissioners. So, it’s him who makes the decision in terms of return, it’s him who signs the certificate of the winner. In terms of the split going by our history, it creates doubts in large parts of the population about what went on, remembering this was an election that was evenly split across the country. So, I think it aggravates the situation for those who do not believe in their loss,” he said.

Some observers say the electoral dispute and the division at the electoral agency have taken away from the gains Kenya made in its electoral reforms after the post-election violence of 2007-08, which led to deaths, displacement and inter-communal fighting.

The international observers have urged those aggrieved with the process to take the legal route and called on political leaders to calm their supporters as the process concludes.
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The European Union is planning a five-fold increase in financial support to an African military mission in Mozambique, an internal EU document shows, as Islamist attacks threaten gas projects meant to reduce the EU’s reliance on Russian energy.

The energy squeeze due to the Ukraine war has added impetus to Europe’s scramble for gas off Mozambique’s northern coast, where Western oil firms are planning to build a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.

The move also comes as the West seeks to counter Russian and Chinese influence in the southern African nation, three years after Russian private military firm Wagner withdrew most of its forces following a string of defeats by Islamist militants.

Mozambique has been grappling with militants linked to the Islamic State in its northernmost gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado since 2017, near LNG projects worth billions of dollars.

A southern African military mission and a separate intervention by troops from Rwanda have between them managed to contain the militants’ spread since being deployed last year.

But “the situation remains very volatile and smaller-scale violent attacks have continued in various districts,” the EU document dated Aug. 10 said.

The paper prepared by the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s de facto foreign ministry, recommends 15 million euros ($15.3 million) of EU funding to 2024 for the mission of the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC), a bloc of 16 African nations of which half a dozen sent troops to Mozambique.

The mission is expected to be extended for six or twelve months at a SADC summit in Kinshasa starting on Wednesday, according to the document, which adds that EU support for the Rwandan mission would also be proposed in the coming months.

An EU spokesperson confirmed additional financial support to the SADC mission had been proposed, but declined to comment further as the matter was still being discussed by EU governments.

The proposal needs the backing of the 27 EU governments, whose military experts are scheduled to hold a regular meeting on Aug. 25.

A SADC official also confirmed a request for EU support, but added SADC countries would continue to provide key financial support to the mission.

French oil giant Total TTEF.PA is leading an international consortium to extract gas off north Mozambique’s shores and liquefy it at an LNG plant under construction, from where it would be exported to Europe and Asia.

Gas projects threatened

Mozambique has the third largest proven gas reserves in Africa, after Nigeria and Algeria. The EU fears that without support for the military interventions, Mozambique may again lose control of its restive north.

The Islamists have recently stepped up attacks.

The EU has already pledged to provide the country’s army with an additional 45 million euros ($45 million) of financial support, and has so far made available to the SADC mission 2.9 million euros of funding.

The fresh EU support would be limited to “equipment not designed to deliver lethal force,” including radars, mine detectors, boats and medical supplies, the EU document said, in spite of SADC’s needs for lethal material.

Despite delays caused by militant activity, Total still plans to begin production in 2024 from gas reserves estimated in trillions of cubic feet (tcf), more than the amount of gas the EU imports annually from Russia.

Italian oil firm ENI ENI.MI expects to begin shipments from a nearby offshore gas field this year, using a floating LNG terminal which can process only limited amounts of gas.

Other major oil firms, including U.S. giant ExxonMobil XOM.N are also operating in the region.

The funding is also meant to discourage local authorities from seeking help again from Russia, or from China.

The EU is also supporting the training of Mozambique military forces through its own defense mission in the country.
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Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Mali claimed Monday it had killed four mercenaries from Russia’s private military firm, the Wagner Group, in an ambush around Bandiagara in central Mali.

The media unit for Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), said in a statement its fighters clashed with the mercenaries Saturday in the Mopti region, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist statements.

Wagner has no public representation and could not be reached for comment.

Mali is struggling to stem an Islamist insurgency that took root after a 2012 uprising and has since spread to neighboring countries, killing thousands and displacing millions across West Africa’s Sahel region.

Wagner began supplying hundreds of fighters last year to support the Malian military and has since been accused by human rights groups and local residents of participating in massacres of civilians — accusations it has not responded to.

The Russian government has acknowledged Wagner personnel are in Mali, but the Malian government has described them as instructors from the Russian military rather than private security contractors.

In July, JNIM claimed responsibility for an attack on Mali’s main military base, which it said was a response to governmental collaboration with Wagner.
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